Novo Nordisk invests $1.2 billion in new rare disease drugs plant in Denmark By Reuters

By Anna Ringstrom and Maggie Fick

STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) -Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NYSE:) will invest 8.5 billion crowns ($1.20 billion) in a new facility in Odense, Denmark, for the production of rare disease drugs, it said on Monday.

The site will manufacture various types of rare disease drugs, including those for the treatment of haemophilia, Novo Nordisk said in a statement on Monday. The site will include a warehouse as well as a factory, it said.

Novo Nordisk, which has become Europe’s most valuable listed company on the back of its hugely popular weight-loss injection Wegovy, bought the 200-acre site in July, saying it may build a new plant there, without indicating for what type of drugs.

At that time, Reuters reported that according to an environmental report submitted to Danish authorities by the company in January of this year, the plans include facilities to fill injection pens – a process known as fill-finish.

A company spokesperson told Reuters that the factory will have the capabilities to do “finish”, or packaging, work, but will not fill injection pens for drugs such as Wegovy. “And for now the factory will only handle rare disease”, the spokesperson added.

The facility will be Novo Nordisk’s first in the city of Odense, and its first new factory in Denmark this century, the company said.

Construction work has started and is scheduled to be completed in 2027, when the facility is expected to create 400 permanent jobs. During construction, up to 1,000 external employees will be working on-site, the company said.

Novo Nordisk has announced billions of dollars worth of investments this year, including $4.1 billion to build a U.S. facility to fill injection pens for Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic.

Shares in the company were up 2% in early trade, taking a year-to-date rise to 10%.

($1 = 7.0926 Danish crowns)